International agreements broken, nationalism stirred: is history repeating?
Whenever I find myself reading one of the many letters concerning the relative merits of the incumbent US president, the words of that excellent Siegfried Sassoon World War I poem “ The General” inadvertently spring to mind:
He’s a ‘cheery old card’ grunted Harry to Jack,
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack,
But he did for them both by his plan of attack!
It would appear that the US electorate genuinely supported him (or, in reality, less than one in four of them, if we consider that the winning majority was less than half of the mere 52 per cent that actually voted).
Like it or not, were Mr Trump to wear a uniform and speak German we would surely recognise the same characteristics of a previous leader who frequently welched on agreements made in good faith by previous occupants of his office, and united his country by stirring up latent nationalistic tendencies on a “Germany First” mandate. In the same vein, Adolf also demonstrated an impulsive personality and surrounded himself with like-minded associates who assisted in generally vilifying almost everybody else in order to support his policies.
The rest of the world must now look forward with some trepidation for the next Cuban Missile-style crisis to occur.
Given the current precarious situations around the world, it’s hard to believe that such an event will not arise.
Tony Ash
Cha-Am
